You know you've been on the woodies year team when...

-when you can tell, just by scanning around a room, which chairs are in stacks of 8 and which aren't
-Chairs in stacks other than 8's just 'look wrong'
-You get a lot of satisfaction every time you look at the sink that you've just cleaned
-You've become an expert at looking for the joins in carpets to enable easier vacumming of big open spaces
-spending an evening scraping walls no longer sounds like an odd thing to do
-You're starting to come round to the idea that orange sofas with red cushions might not look quite so bad together after all
-You have many new skills to add to your cv, including: making an excellent tea or coffee (even if you don't drink it yourself), lining up chairs in straight lines, being able to carry a tray of wine glasses up/down steps without dropping them, being able to carry a stack of 8 chairs using your knees, mopping floors, being able to read childrens' books upside down (so they can see the pictures), filling up baptistry tanks, oh and did I mention being able to put out chairs in straight lines ?

:-D More seriously though...It's hard to believe year team is coming to an end already. In some senses it has gone by so quickly, yet I had my end of year review today and in other senses so much has happened ! We officially have one and a bit more weeks on year team, and then are off to Romania for 10days to help with a kids camp. Before I started year team people said to me that I would be challenged physically, emotionally, spiritually, and any other -ally's I could think of, but that it would be a good year. I do feel that is very true. But it is so hard saying goodbye to so many people, those that I have worked with for a year as I end my placements this week and next as well as to those who are themselves moving on. I know that this is not, by far, the end but is in fact only the beginning of something, yet I still cannot help but feel an ache in my heart, despite the fact that I know I still have another week.

A song I have found most helpful this week (one which I had in my head during my driving test but has since been used for more than that) is "Well with my soul", or the arrangement of it by Brenton Brown. (I know the context it was written in is very different to how I'm using it, but it nevertheless seems to fit how I'm feeling). It goes:

"Sometimes it's hard, sometimes I cry
Sometimes my heart, wants to know why
But Your yoke is easy, and Your burden is light
And though my heart is aching and there're tears in my eyes

Whatever my lot, You have taught me to know
It is well, it is well with my soul.

It's not always easy, I'm not always right
Sometimes I do things that are wrong in Your sight
But I have decided I'm going to follow Jesus
And there's no turning back, there's no turning back

But please hold my hand Lord, and hold on tight
'Cause the road here is narrow
Yes the road here is narrow"
-Brenton Brown

Whatever I've learnt this year I am not going to just forget. God has been building foundations in me (which implies now building on top of them?!) and I won't be going back. There's no turning back, only keeping on going forwards !